THE MANDIR PITCH
With an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha election, a competitive pitch for the construction of the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya is on in the Sangh parivar. A‘hunkar’ rally by the Vishva Hindu Parishad during the dharam sansad in Ayodhya on November 25 demanded that the NDA government issue an executive order to bypass the Supreme Court which is currently hearing the case. Referring to the Allahabad High Court judgment of 2010 which had ordered a tripartite division of the disputed site (one part for the Nirmohi Akhara, one for Ram Lalla and one for the Sunni Waqf Board), the VHP declared that it will not accept any formula to divide the 2.77 acre land. “We have waited for the court to decide for a long time, now we are done with them,” fumed spokesman Sharad Sharma. “If there are more delays, the people will get agitated. We saw the result in 1992.”
On the same day, in Nagpur, at another ‘hunkar sabha’, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat suggested the law must yield to majority religious sentiments. “Though laws are necessary, can society run only on the basis of law? Will you continue to bypass the truth and people’s feelings?” he asked.
Addressing an election meeting in Alwar, Rajasthan, on November 25, Prime Minister Narendra Modi predictably sought to lay the blame at the door of the Congress party, suggesting it was adopting delaying tactics in the Supreme Court to create hurdles to the temple’s construction. Modi insinuated that a Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member (allegedly senior lawyer Kapil Sibal) was telling the SC not to hear the case till the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav